CustomerGauge, Best Practice SeriesEmail/Web Surveys vs. Phone Surveys

Robert Kerner, Director, Business Development CustomerGauge/Directness rob.kerner@directness.net

Adam Dorrell, CEO CustomerGauge/Directness Adam.dorrell@directness.net

Email/Web Survey vs Phone Surveys

Two go in, one comes out!

What we do: Directness

• We provide technical solutions to help companies add strong metrics to marketing activities– CustomerGauge: Automatically measure,

understand and analyse customer sentiment, using Net Promoter Score®. Identify and grow your most loyal customers.

• Used by global organisations– +1 million end-customers measured since

2007– +25,000 marketing events tracked since

2008• Company background: hi-tech marketing:

Sony, Dell, Compaq, HP, KPN etc– Privately funded, based Amsterdam, NL

Consumers

B2b customers

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Outbound Phone Surveying (with people)

• Simple to start, infinitely flexible– Script based, numbers into a

spreadsheet– “smile and dial” until you get

through– Easy to get numbers – you can

survey anyone with a phone– Detailed answers– Can immediately escalate

issues (if setup right)• Watch out for

– “no-call” lists– Busy people don’t take calls– Operator bias– Hard to transcribe a lot of text– Reporting– Expense!

Phone Surveying IVR

• Well understood technology (1960s)– Normally at end of call, operator hands of

to IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system

– Systems can be menu based with voice recording

– Transcribing not very expensive if outsourced

– Reliable, mid-range costs– Realtime reporting

• Watch out for– Low response rate/ high drop off rate– People hate phone menus– Operator bias (don’t survey angry

customers)– Mistakes on transcribing– Outbound IVR not liked (some places not

legal)– Technology showing its age

Email/Web surveying

• Simple to setup– Inexpensive– Flexible, many question types– Immediate results– Number and Text results that can be put in a

spreadsheet, searchable– Number of people with email is increasing

• Watch out for– Spam– Security– Privacy– Low responses– Over-complicating surveys– Mobile email/browsing– Making reporting difficult (too many scales!)– Surprisingly difficult to manage well (reminders,

bounces, actions, CRM link)

Who can receive email and browse the web?• IDC say that 1bn smart phones will be

sold in 2015[1]

• 30% of the World’s population already have internet access [2]

1. http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2011/06/idcs-smartphone-forecast-55-increase-this-year-reckons-1-billion-will-ship-by-2015.html2. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Web Hall of Shame

• How not to do a web survey– Too many

questions, multiple pages (you lose c.15% per page)

– Complex grids of scales

– Insisting on answers

– Asking customers for information you already hold (CRM)

Page 14 of 21

You must complete every section!

Email Hall of Shame

• Email annoyance– Bad subject lines: “test”– Too many graphics, or

not working on a smart phone

– No way of unsubscribing– Over-emailing

Let’s take an example

Stating Point:• 10,000 customer names• 90% phone numbers• 10% email address

Ending Point• 10,000 customer names• 40% phone numbers• 60% email address

This Example? No!

From a cost perspective

100,000 100,000

10,000 10,000 Survey (calls) 10,000 Email 1 sent 10,000 Email 2 sent 8,200 Response rate 10% Response rate 18% Response rate 9%Reponses 1,000 Reponses 1,800 Reponses 738 Cost per Call, answered 10.00€ Total Email Sent 18,200 Total Reponses 2,538 Cost per Call, unanswered 1.00€ Cost per email 0.025€ Cost emails 455€

Cost, answered Calls 10,000€ Cost, unanswered calls 9,000€ Total Costs 19,000€

Campaign Budget 19,000€ Campaign Budget 455.00€ Cost per Reponses, 19.00€ Cost per Reponses, 0.18€ Total Responses 1,000 Total Responses 2,538 Responses Rate, of all customers 1.0% Responses Rate, of all customers 2.5%

Contact Centre, 1 call per customer Email, initial email and 1 reminder

Number of Customers Number of Customers

Number of Surveys, usually limited by contact centre capacity

Number of Surveys, usually limited by number of emails address that you have

Items in light blue are assumptions but you can clearly see that in practically no scenario are you going to see where emails and reminders are not going to have a lower cost to serve than phone calls

Why should I get more emails?Why should we try to get more email addresses?

Customers 10,000 Customers 10,000

Phone Surveys 90% Phone Surveys 40%

Email Surveys 10% Email Surveys 60%

Number of Phone Surveys 9,000 Number of Phone Surveys 4,000 Number of Email Surveys 1,000 Number of Email Surveys 6,000

Reponses, Phone 900 Reponses, Phone 400 Reponses, Email 147 Reponses, Email 885 Total reponses 1,047 Total reponses 1,285

Cost, Phone 17,100€ Cost, Phone 7,600€ Cost, Email 25€ Cost, Email 150€ Cost, Total 17,125€ Cost, Total 7,750€

Campaign Budget 17,125€ Campaign Budget 7,750€ Cost per Reponses, 16.35€ Cost per Reponses, 8.76€ Total Responses 1,047 Total Responses 1,285 Responses Rate 10.5% Responses Rate 12.8%

Total Savings 9,375€ 55%Extra Reponses 237 23%Extra Reponse Rate 2.4%

Starting Point Ending Point

When to touch the phone….

• There are times to call but not just to do a survey.

• Call your top customers after a response to ensure that you understand what they meant

• Close issues FAST, best practice here is 24 hours for detractors. Use your teams to do this, not take surveys.

• Probe interesting comments. Call back people when they give you new product ideas or seem to have some new insight that you can use.

• Engage promoters in general, engage them to make them feel more involved in the organization, offer deals to valuable, long term customers to surprise them etc.

Key Take Aways

Email/web is MORE effective than phone surveys

Email/web is around 100 times more cost effective than telephone surveying

No response bias (from a telephone operator) Can be completed in own time, better able to reach senior

executives No transcribing errors Auditable, anti-gaming systems to ensure that there is no

survey fraud Instant results No training of contact staff needed Smartphones are becoming the dominant force, can do

web surveys on the move Best practice: Email/Web surveying, use phone for

follow-ups and service recovery.